


The Fated Dance

by AriaSaeryen



Category: Barbie in The Pink Shoes (2013)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-11
Updated: 2015-03-11
Packaged: 2018-03-17 09:51:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 9,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3524750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AriaSaeryen/pseuds/AriaSaeryen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nieve, the Snow Queen, cold-hearted and tyrannical, had ruled over the realm of Katerenni for years of a bitter winter in the hearts of its inhabitants. It is up to one girl from another world to rescue the land, the two girls tied to the Snow Queen by fate, and the sister of the queen, whose spring flowers have withered for a long time</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

PROLOGUE

            _Katerina never expected to see another world._

_All she knew was that she could never dance. She knew she had no talent for ballet. Her older sister, Natasha, far surpassed her. She was jealous; she was not going to hide that fact, but she mostly spent her days dreaming of what could never be, rather than trying to show her sister up. Katerina loved her sister._

_Then one day, something completely unexpected happened._

_Katerina was wandering through the woods and found a pair of abandoned ballet slippers. They were pink, and just about her size. She suddenly felt a great longing – one that she could not explain at all._

_The girl took a deep breath and took off her black Mary Janes. Then, she put on the pink shoes._

_At once, she found herself standing perfectly on point, something she had never been able to do. The next second brought even more surprise, as she saw that the world around her had completely changed – she now stood in a beautiful garden next to a fountain, and a girl of fourteen with lavender hair stood beside the fountain._

_Curious, Katerina approached her._

_She gasped. Aside from the hair color, the girl looked exactly like she did! The girl looked surprised, too._

_“You…look exactly as I do!” the girl told Katerina. “Except your hair, it’s…brown, and mine –”_

_She seemed too shocked to continue._

_Katerina then learned that the girl was named Kalmia. She also had an older sister, named Nieve. Kalmia was apparently a princess of the crazy land. She had beautiful pink ballet shoes just like Katerina’s, and her tutu of sea foam green was embroidered with lovely yellow flowers. Upon her head she wore a crown of flowers._

_Katerina and Kalmia quickly became friends. To her delight, Katerina found she could dance perfectly while in this land. She even met the reclusive Nieve, who didn’t seem to happy to see her. There was one thing Katerina noticed about the older princess: she was as icy and cold as her sister was warm and cheerful. Nieve’s tutu was ice blue, embroidered with snowflakes, and her hair was white, with a tiara of icicles woven into it. She somewhat reminded Katerina of her own sister, but Natasha wasn’t nearly as cold as this._

_Katerina kept the pink shoes with her, and when she began to grow out of them, Kalmia made her new ones. She even made pairs for Katerina’s sister and friends, but none of them believed her. When Katerina grew up and began working as a seamstress at her sister’s ballet studio, Kalmia gave her shoes of all sizes, so any student of hers could visit._

_Though Katerina never did forget Kalmia, her attention was turned away from her and toward the ballet students. And one fateful day, in Kalmia’s world, her sister Nieve became queen of the land, and ruled with a heart of ice. She locked her sister in the dungeons of her new ice castle, and froze anyone who didn’t do what she wanted into a statue of ice._

_However, not everyone believed Nieve to be a tyrant. Many snow faeries served her, and some of them saw her as just, for those faeries’ hearts were as frozen as the Queen’s. And one faery troop in particular adored her. Nieve had gone around the land to find young maidens who had been scorned by their lovers. She froze the young men and transformed the girls into immortal faeries. The girls, in gratitude, became Nieve’s most loyal servants. Stories of them began to spread, and they came to be known as the Wilis._

_The people of the land feared Nieve’s reign would last forever. But, as fate would have it, the first rays of the dawn were breaking through the snowy night sky, though none noticed._


	2. Prophecy

            “Your Majesty!”

            Queen Nieve stood up. A snow faery messenger had arrived.

            “What is it?” she said icily.

            “It’s your sister, ma’am!”

            “ _What_.”

            Nieve’s tone sounded like an icicle falling and shattering on a sheet of cold ice.

            “You know very well that I do not have time to deal with _her_. See to it that she knows her place!”

            The faery shuddered.

            “Do I make myself clear?” Nieve said softly, staring right into the faery’s eyes.

            “It’s…just…” the faery squeaked.

            “Just _what_?” Nieve demanded coldly.

            “She…she says she foresees…something…” the faery said, trembling with fear.

            “ _Take me to her_.”

~

            Kalmia watched through the bars of ice as the faery and her sister approached.

            “Hello, Nieve,” she said.

            “Hello, Kalmia,” Nieve replied without any trace of her sister’s warmth. “Now tell me….what did you see?”

            Kalmia said nothing. She didn’t want anything to happen to the two girls she had seen in her vision.

            “Tell me now,” said Nieve. “Or else…”

            She gestured in the faery messenger’s direction.

            Kalmia gasped softly. She would have to say something if she didn’t want that innocent faery to freeze.

            “All right. I see that if you continue to rule this way, you will fall.”

            “Kalmia, I know you’re hiding something,” Nieve responded. “Tell me _everything_.”

            Her hand was still pointed at the faery.

            Kalmia sighed.

            “There are two young maidens of thirteen who, in three years’ time, will together end your reign over this land.”

            “And what are their names?”

            A tear fell from Kalmia’s right eye. Did she have to say?

            “I’m waiting!” Nieve declared.

            Kalmia still said nothing.

            “Very well,” Nieve said. She turned toward the faery.

            “No! Giselle!” screamed Kalmia.

            Nieve turned. “What was that?”

            “One of them is called Giselle,” Kalmia said.

            “And the other?”

            “…Odette.”

            Without any words of gratitude, Nieve turned and left, followed by the faery.

~

            The Wilis stood in reverence, gathered around Nieve’s throne.

            “Find _Giselle_ and _Odette_ ,” Nieve demanded of them. “Then report back to me and tell me all you can.”


	3. Giselle's Curse

            _She_ was beautiful. _She_ was perfect. _She_ was everything Eira wanted to be – a good dancer, and loved.

            Giselle.

            Eira’s heart burned with jealousy. She had once had a childhood friend like this girl seemed to. And he’d been a farm boy, too. Except…he had left her. Left her for some dancer, until the great and benevolent Queen Nieve had turned him to ice, like he deserved, and appointed her to the Queen’s highest court of snow faeries, the Wilis.

            Nieve had sent Eira to spy on this girl, but as Eira observed her, she scoffed. Her, defeat the Snow Queen? Not a chance. She was like a little butterfly, graceful and delicate. She would not stand a chance against Queen Nieve. Eira chuckled softly. What a fool Kalmia was!

            “ _Eira_ …”

            Eira turned at the sound of the seething voice.

            It was Myrtha, the leader of the Wilis; the first one Nieve had recruited.

            “ _What_ have you been doing, Eira?!” Myrtha said slowly and coldly. “Messing around?”

            “I’m sorry, I just –”

            “What could have caused you to stare at a farm girl for an hour, Eira?!”

            Eira felt her face grow hot with envy.

            “I despise her, Myrtha. Look at her. So happy, so beloved, so _perfect_. She is exactly like the one he left me for. I hope our great and benevolent Queen Nieve freezes her into a rock!”

            “Hush, now,” Myrtha said softly. “I am sure our queen will do something to freeze the flower before it blooms and overthrows her. We must report back to Nieve.”

~

            The pair of them returned to Nieve’s ice palace that she had built in place of the old one Katerina had adored.

            “What of Giselle?” Nieve asked.

            Eira immediately told of how the young maiden’s dancing and gladness had sparked envy.

            “I have no fear that she can do anything to you, but I implore Your Majesty to rid my eyes of the sight of her!” she shrieked.

            “Ah, Eira,” Nieve replied. “Do not fear. I doubt she will be dancing much longer.”

            In fact…

            Nieve congratulated herself on her own cleverness. Perhaps the very fact that the girl spent her days dancing might be her downfall! Oh, how brilliant of her!

            She closed her eyes and muttered something. A bolt of icy blue appeared between her hands. In the middle of it, an orb of sapphire color fading to white as it neared the center began to grow.

            When the orb was big enough that she held it in her hands, the Snow Queen opened her eyes and gave a loud “HA!”

            The orb whizzed out of the castle and into the distance.

            “What did you just do?” Myrtha asked.

            “It’s a curse,” Nieve explained delightedly. “When it hits Giselle, her heart will grow weak. No doubt that so much dancing will cause her to collapse before sunrise on her sixteenth birthday! Ha!”

            “And what about the other girl, Odette?” added Eira.

            “My sister said both of them would bring about my defeat. With one gone, it won’t happen.”


	4. Kidnapping

On that very day, Giselle had not stopped dancing. She and Hilarion, her best friend at the time, were dancing together as they watched the cows graze.

“It’s beautiful,” the young girl whispered looking up at the pale blue sky tinted with the orange color of the setting sun.

Hilarion nodded. He liked Giselle quite a bit, but the romantic stuff just didn’t strike him as hard as it did her.

The girl leaned forward into an arabesque as both of them began dancing again.

Suddenly, a sapphire blue orb with a white center whizzed toward the pair out of nowhere.

“Look out!” Giselle screamed, flinging herself in front of Hilarion. When the orb began to head for her, she screamed “Hilarion, duck!” But though both of them got themselves out of the orb’s reach, it abruptly changed it course and hit Giselle squarely in the chest.

Giselle uttered a muffled squeal and trembled. It felt as though liquid ice was spreading from her heart to her whole being. It was colder than any winter she had remembered.

And then it stopped.

“Giselle? Are you okay?” Hilarion asked.

She quivered again.

“Yeah, yeah, I just felt a chill…let’s dance.”

They started to dance again when Giselle suddenly stumbled. She gasped, placing her hand quickly on her chest.

“Giselle!” Hilarion cried.

“My…heart…” the girl gasped. “It’s beating so quickly…”

~

            From that day on, Giselle’s mother forbade her to dance due to her suddenly weakened heart. It did not stop her, however.

            In another kingdom, right next to the one where Giselle lived, Odette was having her own misfortunes. Unlike in Giselle’s case, Queen Nieve had not intervened to stop Odette from growing up to dethrone her. Odette was a princess from another land who had many sisters, her being the oldest.

            Long ago, before she or Giselle had been born, a princess named Leda had been named heir to her kingdom. It was decreed that she must marry to be eligible for the crown. A young count named Rothbart was greedy for power and courted the young princess, but she refused him for a gardener named Cygnus. The jealous Count Rothbart swore to make the lives of Leda and Cygnus miserable.

            Many years later, Queen Leda and Prince Cygnus had many children, all girls. When Princess Odette was thirteen, Rothbart, who had studied black magic for the sole purpose of revenge upon Cygnus and Leda, he snuck into the garden in the form of a black owl.

            “Look!” Princess Cisne exclaimed, pointing at the owl in a tree.

            The other princesses joined her and gazed in wonder.

            “That’s not possible!” declared Princess Celadonia. “Owls only fly at night!”

            “And _yet_ ,” teased Princess Evelina.

            A looming shadow appeared over the three of them. They all began to shudder.

            Suddenly, the owl swooped from the tree branch and landed on the ground, transforming into his true form.

            “A sorcerer!” Cisne squealed.

            Odette and the rest of the princesses rushed toward their sisters.

            “Cisne, get away from him!” Odette shouted.

            But her warning came too late.

            “You shall become great voiceless birds and leave this place forever!” Rothbart cackled, firing bolts of magic at them.

            The daughters of Queen Leda looked at each other – and themselves – in horror. They honked in protest. Only they could understand the begs and pleas of their sisters.

            With more black magic being thrown at them, they hurried to another land, as he had turned back into an owl and chased them to the border, making it clear that he would attack them if they were to return.

When Cygnus and Leda noticed that it was sunset and their daughters still hadn’t returned, they grew sick with worry. It was then that Rothbart appeared before them and announced that they had been transformed into swans and would never come back.

“You should have married me, dear Leda,” Rothbart said with a smirk. “Then maybe you wouldn’t be crying.”

“ _Leave_ , _scoundrel_!” Cygnus ordered, drawing his sword. Rothbart gasped and flew away.

Leda and Cygnus searched far and wide for their daughters. It was two years before they finally found them settled in a valley. Each of them cried for the seven months they spent with their transformed daughters. By the end of it, the tears of the Queen and her consort had become a beautiful, glistening blue lake. After they returned home, the princesses glided on it, and that night, the love in their parents’ tears had half-lifted their curse. From sunset until dawn, the princesses would transform back into girls. They never went home for fear of Rothbart.

~

            Three years later, Queen Nieve was growing restless. That worthless girl Giselle had not succumbed to the curse, and any minute now she might be marching through the Snow Queen’s palace halls to dethrone her. Nieve had to do something!

            “Eira!” she ordered. “Bring me my ice crystal!”

            Eira, who had been trying to repair a broken mirror with her ice magic, dropped it and hastened to obey her queen.

            Nieve slumped in her icy throne. She was having the worst luck. Not only was Giselle still dancing, but the other girl (whose name Nieve had forgotten) was probably all ready to join her.

            She had been complaining in her head when she heard the clink of frozen toeshoes on the ground. Eira was back with a gleaming white diamond in her hands.

            “Well done,” Nieve said, taking the jewel from her servant. “Now leave me.”

            Eira did as she was told.

            Nieve mumbled some magic words, and the diamond began to vibrate softly. She let it go. It levitated above the ground.

            “Show me Giselle!” the Snow Queen commanded.

            The diamond showed a beautiful meadow in which a small village sat. Giselle was dancing, though with more caution than she had been when Eira had spied on her three years ago. Something in the distance caught Nieve’s eye.

            “Show me the travelers nearby!” she commanded.

            The diamond’s focus moved away from Giselle and toward a hunting party. There were horses, and astride them were noblemen. Leading them was clearly a prince, who was carrying no bow, but a mirror, in which he admired himself.

            Nieve chuckled. This was perfect! Surely a shock of seeing royalty would be too much for Giselle. She sent a blizzard toward the party.

~

Prince Albrecht, the leader of the hunting party, suddenly felt a chill.

“Blizzard!” screamed a nobleman. “Your highness, we must go back!”

Albrecht was stunned. This didn’t feel right. It was springtime, so what was a blizzard doing here?

“I’m so sorry, Your Highness,” a nobleman further away said. “The way back is blocked by the blizzard. There’s no way we’ll be able to see.”

Albrecht was an ambitious man, and he was not about to give up. His eyes scanned the horizon.

“There!” he finally called, pointing at a patch of blue sky.

The prince and his men rode swiftly to it, winding up in Giselle’s field.

Giselle gasped. Who were they?

“Excuse me, sir, but who might you be?” she asked.

The prince just gazed at her. She was beautiful. He had never believed in love at first sight, but she was starting to change his mind.

“I’m…um…”

He couldn’t reveal his true name. She would know that he was in an arranged marriage already. If he could get her to love him in return, he might be able to persuade his parents to break it off. _If_ he could win her heart.

“Loys,” he finally answered.

“I’m Giselle,” she replied.

~

            “She doesn’t know he is a prince?!” Nieve shrieked, lashing out at the ice crystal.

            “Careful, Your Majesty!” Myrtha cautioned, getting it away from her.

            “Get her image out of my _sight_!” the queen screamed.

            Unfortunately for Nieve, Giselle wasn’t coming at all close to finding out the truth about “Loys”. And to her added dismay, the Snow Queen was observing love blossoming between the two. At first, it was just an annoyance, but it was clear that Giselle was physically getting stronger. It seemed that both of them genuinely loved one another, for Nieve could sense that her curse was weakening. Only true love could break an evil curse.

            One night, Nieve was struck with great fear. She had been spying on Albrecht through her ice crystal. He was planning to propose to Giselle. If he did, and she accepted, than Nieve’s curse would be no more and she would be dethroned.

            It was time that the Snow Queen took matters into her own hands.

~

            A tired Giselle awoke before her eyes opened. It couldn’t be morning yet. Everything was way too dark behind her eyelids. Her room had a big window that let in the first rays of the sun.

            That was odd. Why was it so hard? True, she was no princess, but her bed was usually comfortable. And the temperature…brrr. It was _spring_ , and a warm spring at that.

            Wearily, Giselle opened her eyes.

            She screamed, her heart rate increasing with the shock. She was in an ice cold place with glistening blue walls, and – were those _jail bars_? What was she doing in prison?

            “Are you alright, my dear?”

            Giselle sat up, looking for the source of the voice.

            Sitting in another corner of the cell was a woman with short lavender shoulder-length hair. She was wearing a long dress of sea foam green adorned with many flowers, though the flowers were clearly withering.

            “Who are you?” Giselle asked.

            “My name is Kalmia,” the woman replied. “I am Nieve’s younger sister. She locked me up in here a long time ago. What is your name, my child?”

            “…Giselle.”

            Kalmia shed a single tear.

            “Giselle…I’m so sorry. It’s my fault you’re a prisoner. I told Nieve of a prophecy I had, in which I foresaw you and another girl dethrone her. I would not have said a thing, except my sister threatened to harm her messenger.”

            “Wait!” said another voice. “Giselle? You’re here now, too?”

            Giselle turned. A girl with dark brown hair in a bun and a purple tutu decorated with feathers had been speaking to her.

            “This is Odette,” Kalmia explained. “She’s the other girl I had the prophecy about.”

            “I’m sorry Giselle,” Odette said through tears. “I hoped she wouldn’t capture you. I was cursed by a sorcerer three years ago, and now my sisters are without me…”

            Giselle crawled over to her and put one hand on her shoulder. Though she tried to comfort Odette, the future looked bleak to her. There seemed to be no way Nieve’s reign would end now.

            Kalmia, however, still had one more ray of hope.


	5. Enter Kristyn

            In Katerina’s dreams, she was a little girl once more.

            She could visit her beautiful ballet world. Most of her dreams were just memories, but she was very happy there. She could see Kalmia, who she considered her twin.

            One night, however, she saw something quite different. It was as if she was having a vision. It felt different from a mere dream; she was somewhat aware that she _was_ dreaming, which usually never happened.

            As usual, she was a young girl again, dancing perfectly in the gorgeous land.

            Just like that first day, Kalmia appeared from behind the fountain. She looked as young as she had been on that day, but her face looked more mature, and her expression was grave.

            “Katerina…” she half whispered, extending her left hand.

            “Kalmia,” Katerina said.

            They touched one another’s hands.

            Katerina yelped in terror. The palace was covering itself in ice! The fountain stopped running, and Kalmia’s wrists were glowing blue. A pair of icy shackles appeared on them.

            “Kalmia!” Katerina screamed.

            Kalmia’s voice was hushed and unmistakably that of an older woman.

            “Listen, Katerina, my sister,” she murmured, “the land of Katerenni is in trouble. This ice is the work of Nieve.”

            “Nieve…your…sister?” Katerina asked with a slight gasp.

            “Yes,” Kalmia replied. “She has the whole world frozen in her icy grip. She has gained loyalty; her top army is made up entirely of scorned girls whose former beloveds she froze. I foresaw a way to stop her, but I had to tell her or she would have attacked her servant.”

            Floating slightly above the ground behind Kalmia appeared the rippling images of the imprisoned Giselle and Odette.

            “They were supposed to stop all this, and now Nieve’s captured them,” Kalmia explained with a sigh.

            “But that’s…!”

            Katerina stared in shock. The two girls were wearing ballet costumes _she_ had made.

            “Giselle! That girl is Giselle!”

            She couldn’t believe her eyes. Giselle, from the ballet, defeat an ice queen?

            “With her and Odette trapped, you’re Katerenni’s only hope!” Kalmia said through pants and tears. “Please, help us!”

            It seemed like a dream, but Katerina _knew_ Kalmia. This had to be real. If Giselle and Odette really were supposed to defeat Queen Nieve, and they really were imprisoned, she couldn’t just keep sewing costumes and forget about it!

            “I’ll do whatever it takes to save this land!” Katerina cried out, tightly holding onto Kalmia’s hand.

            “Good luck,” whispered Kalmia. And with that, the world around Katerina faded to white, and her eyelids fluttered open.

            She knew what she had to do.

~

            “Let’s have the milkmaid number!”

            Katerina watched her sister instruct from the left wing. Across from her was a ballet student, her blonde hair tied up tight in a bun. The girl’s name was Kristyn Farraday.

            “Lower the cow!” Natasha commanded.

            “Dance like nobody’s watching!” Kristyn’s best friend, Hailey, encouraged her.

            Katerina knew Hailey well. She liked designing costumes as much as Katerina did.

            “Because nobody will be watching, except the cow,” remarked Tara, another ballet student.

            Katerina frowned. Tara Pennington had been very cheerful – friendly, even – when she had started at Natasha’s school. But over the years, she had become so incredibly full of herself that Katerina could hardly believe she was the same girl. What was worse, her father encouraged her snobbery. Katerina had once heard him tell her how much better she was than the others by talking badly about them.

            The seamstress snapped out of her thoughts to watch Kristyn danced. Katerina rather liked Kristyn; she was very creative. The young ballerina was giving it everything she had.

            “Nice…good…” said Hailey.

            Then, suddenly, the music changed. Katerina gasped. Kristyn was, as usual, making up her own dance moves, but the music had never done this before.

            That was when she knew exactly who was right to save Katerenni.

            “ _Stop_!” Natasha ordered. “ _Stop the music_ , _stop everything_!”

            Katerina saw a sound manager turn off the stereo, but the music wasn’t stopping. Neither was Kristyn.

            “ _That means you_ , _Kristyn_!” Natasha snapped.

            The girl tripped and fell, tearing one of her shoes.

            “Oh!” she cried.

            Natasha walked up to the stage.

            “Ms. Farraday,” she scolded, “this is not the choreography we rehearsed!”

            Katerina listened as the girl apologized and Natasha continued to scold her. It didn’t seem fair; the girl should at least have a chance to write down her own classical ballet dance and do that for her instructor. It wasn’t as if there couldn’t be any more artists. Perhaps she should write her own ballet; she would undoubtedly be very good at it.

            But before that, there was a much direr situation to fix.

~

            Nieve stared into her ice crystal. No one seemed to realize Giselle was missing. Something was wrong. She must have escaped.

            Her fury made her face turn icy blue rather than red. She stomped downstairs, her icy castle becoming colder as she went.

            “ _Kalmia_ …”

            “Get behind me!” Kalmia told the two girls with her.

            Giselle and Odette ducked behind Kalmia as Nieve approached their cell.

            “Kalmia, I will ask you only once,” Nieve began in a tone of mock calmness. “ _Where is Giselle_?!”

            “Here!” Giselle squeaked, stepping out from behind Nieve’s sister.

            “So, something _else_ is going on,” Nieve scowled. “Enjoy your time here, withering lilies!”

            And as she approached the door, she stage whispered, “ _You won’t get out_.”

~

            She looked again. The people of Giselle’s village were dancing merrily. Lively music played as Prince Albrecht stepped into the middle of it all, no doubt waiting for Giselle.

            _Fool_ , Nieve thought. _She isn’t coming_.

            She saw the prince extend his hand as the music ended. But, as predicted, she didn’t appear.

            The ending chords played again, and Albrecht extended his hand again.

            “You fool!” Nieve chuckled.

            The chords played and the prince extended his hand a third time.

            Nieve began as smile, but then she saw an older woman come out of the cottage.

            The prince drew back in mild disgust. Nieve gasped. Had Giselle escaped just now and somehow aged?

            “Uh, Your Majesty?”

            Nieve yelped as she felt someone tap her on the shoulder.

            “Oh, it’s just you, Eira. What reason could you possibly have for bothering me?”

            “That’s Giselle’s _mother_.”

            Nieve sighed in relief – then tensed up again when she the woman call, “Psst! _Giselle_!”

            The woman was beckoning someone to come near.

            “Look!” Eira cried.

            “I think she’s talking to _you_ ,” said a girl who Nieve had never seen before.

            “Me?!” said the girl next to her. “I’m not Giselle!”

            Nieve’s eyes widened. Yes, she was!

            “You!” she ordered a passing faery. “Go to Giselle and tell me at once if she’s missing!”

            The faery weakly nodded and hastened to obey.

            Nieve watched as the girl who had to be Giselle danced. Much closer to her, Albrecht was watching. It was like falling in love all over again.

            “She’s so beautiful,” he told the young woman next to him. “I must have her as my wife!”

            “So, you’re a peasant, huh?” she said.

            What did she mean?

            “What?” he said. “Yes, that’s correct.”

            “Single, are you? No _fiancée_?”

            How did she know that?! Or did she even know that?

            “No, no, no, of course not!” He had never agreed to be engaged in the first place. True, at the time he hadn’t minded, but then he’d met and gotten to know Giselle, and his whole world had turned upside down.

            “Not _masquerading_ as a peasant to deceive Giselle into marrying you?!” she snapped.

            Oh, wow, she’d caught him. Who even was she, wearing such strange clothes and seeming to know just about all of his secrets?

            “Oh…I’m sure I wouldn’t know what you’re talking about,” he replied quickly.

            “Beef stew or foie gras?” she asked.

            “Well, foie gras of course!”

            “A- _ha_!”

            She pointed at him.

            That was it. The strange outsider had found him out. Now he was never going to break his engagement.

            All of a sudden, Giselle began to dance in a way unlike any he’d seen before! When she finished, he and the peasants cheered.

~

            “Your Majesty, Giselle is still imprisoned.”

            Nieve scowled. The faery had to be lying. She looked into her ice crystal.

            The faery had been telling the truth. That meant the “Giselle” dancing in the village was an imposter!

            Numerous questions were skittering in Nieve’s mind. Who _was_ this girl? How had she become such a perfect likeness of Giselle? And what if it was _she_ , and not Giselle, who would dethrone Nieve?!  
            The Snow Queen was frightened. She had to stop this before it could go any further.

            “Bring me my chariot!” she ordered.

~

            The people cheered. Albrecht approached his beloved and pulled her close.

            “My darling,” he said, “you are more beautiful today than ever before!”

            “Um…thank you,” she replied in an uncertain voice.

            Albrecht was concerned. Could she not see the lovely siren he could?

            “Your eyes, blue as the sky!” he continued. “Your hair, kissed with strawberry –”

            “Oh, yeah, right,” she replied.

            “And I’ve never seen you dance like that! Or anyone else for that matter!”

~

            In her chariot, Nieve looked through her ice crystal. The way she danced…she could _not_ be the real Giselle. She watched as Hilarion exposed Albrecht as an imposter, and they fought over the fake Giselle, who was obviously confused, until a strange girl pulled her away. Such a shock would have activated Nieve’s curse in the real Giselle.

            She had finally arrived. Nieve cleared her throat and the two men’s attention immediately turned to her.

            In shock, they both bowed down deeply. They knew what would happen if the Snow Queen thought they displeased her.

            “Exactly _what_ is happening here?!” she demanded in an icy voice.

            “Oh…um…making plans for my wedding to Giselle, Majesty,” Hilarion stammered.

            “Oh, he hopes in vain!” Albrecht retorted angrily. “Your Majesty will be the guest of honor at _my_ wedding to Giselle!”

            An idea struck Nieve as she floated down from her sleigh.

            “And where is the bride? Bring her here so I may watch her choose between you!”

            If the imposter appeared, Nieve could very easily freeze her.

            “I’m waiting!” she called.

            “Your Majesty,” Albrecht began quickly, “if we had known you were coming we could have –”

            “Giselle is gone, ma’am,” Hilarion interrupted.

            “Gone?!” Nieve snapped. “Gone where?!”

            “Uh…to the market, for buckets,” he stammered in reply.

            “Bucket…” Nieve repeated. “ _How did this happen_?!”

            “I…fear that she is not entirely well!”

            “ _Go on_.”

            “He’s right, for once, Your Majesty,” the prince interjected. “She was not quite herself today. She, er, spoke of not wanting to marry me.”

            “ _Silence_!” the queen ordered.

            The entire village was hushed.

            “Did anyone else see anything?” Nieve continued.

            “She was wearing pink shoes!” said a young man.

            _Pink shoes_ …

            No!

            Kalmia. It had to be. Her sister had been known for those little ballet shoes that gave all who wore them talent as a ballerina. Kalmia was still working, imprisoned though she was, to further the cause of Nieve’s overthrow!

            With a spike of anger having arisen in her, Nieve approached Giselle’s mother.

            “Where would she have gotten pink shoes?”

            “From Claude the cobbler?” the woman replied with uncertainty.

            “ _That_ is not the answer I was looking for.”

            Nieve blew an icy breath at the woman, freezing her.

            “Find her!” Nieve ordered. “And bring her to me! Everything _must be perfect_.”

            “I will leave no turn unstoned,” Hilarion stammered.

            “Led by me, Your Majesty,” Albrecht interrupted.

            The two men looked at each other. They knew they thought alike: if the Snow Queen wanted Giselle, it wasn’t for anything good. They had to find her and hide her away.

            “Until then,” Nieve continued, “dance! Go! Be _perfect_!”

            The people stood in shock.

            “Well?!” Nieve said with a glare. “What are you waiting for?!”

            Immediately the villagers started dancing.

~

            Nieve had been journeying far and long. She decided to rest at a kingdom known as the Land of Sweets. She could see some flower faeries dancing in the distance. She scoffed; those folk were of Kalmia’s ilk. She had no need of them.

            Then, through the woods, a gigantic nutcracker doll appeared, leading a young girl in a faery dress. Hmmm…

            She appeared suddenly before the two of them.

            “You two!” she ordered as they bowed to her. “Find a girl called Giselle!”

            The Nutcracker merely shook his head.

            “Here!” the queen proclaimed. She summoned an icy fog, which formed a circle. It became a looking glass, revealing the imprisoned Giselle.

            “This is the girl you must find, only her shoes are now pink! You will inspect every dog house, mouse house, and gingerbread house in the land until Giselle is found a brought before me!”

            “Oh!” the faery girl cried, raising her hand. “So, so Giselle is gone, like, vanished, like poof? Wearing pink shoes? Ooh! Sounds exciting!”

            Nieve couldn’t handle this. She blew an icy breath and froze the girl. The Nutcracker’s mouth fell open.

            “Anyone else craving excitement?” Nieve asked in an icy voice.

            The Nutcracker shook his head.

~

            Siegfried was a born hunter. He had learned to hunt from a very young age. His kingdom was one where hunting skill was something to be very proud of.

            It happened on a day when he had been hunting swans at night. He noticed many of them gather near a lake and approached. To his amazement, the swans changed. Though the prince knew naught of it, these were the daughters of Cygnus and Leda – and one of them was missing.

            It was then that Odette, or a girl who bore an uncanny resemblance to her, appeared.

            “Odette!” gasped the princesses. They had been looking for her since she had gone missing and were happy and relieved to have her back.

            Siegfried was stunned. The maidens were dressed in silk made to look like swan feathers. The oldest among them, Odette’s doppelganger, wore a tutu of shimmering purple. He instantly fell in love with the young maiden, and Kalmia’s magical shoes began to work an enchantment. This enchantment would eventually break the evil Rothbart’s curse.

            He approached the girl.

            “I am fortunate to come upon such beauty here in the moonlight,” he said to her.

            She was quite eager to dance with him, and they danced. As they danced, the real Odette, locked away in the Snow Queen’s icy palace, felt a strange glimmer of hope. She didn’t know it, but the prince had, in fact, fallen for _her_. She had no idea that by the next night, her curse would be broken.

            Siegfried was even more entranced by the fact that the girl seemed to be making up the steps as she went along. What a creative way to dance!

            When the dance ended, he invited her to the ball the next night. She accepted, for which he was glad. His mother, Queen Vera, had been adamant about him choosing a bride, as he was to inherit his late father’s throne soon.

~

            The night of the ball arrived. Siegfried was ready. He knew exactly who he wanted to marry.

            “Tonight, Siegfried, you choose a bride,” his mother said.

            “I will, Mother,” he replied proudly.

            Just then, a man appeared, leading who he thought was Odette into the room. He assumed the man must be her father, not knowing he was actually Rothbart, and the girl he was leading was his own daughter, Odile.

            “I’m so glad to see you!” Siegfried exclaimed.

            “Of course you are!” Odile replied in contempt.

            They began to dance, and after a few minutes, an astonishing thing happened.

            Two swans flew in, honking. When the sun went down, one of them transformed into a girl wearing strange clothes. The other became the spitting image of Odette.

            Siegfried was confused. Was one of them a fake? If so, which one was real?

            The Odette he had started dancing with was pulling him away from the other, and yet the other was coming closer, trying to catch Siegfried’s attention.

            Then, the music changed. One of the Odettes began to dance her own style, and that was when Siegfried knew.

            “It’s you!” he exclaimed.

~

            Queen Nieve had been watching the strange girl through her ice crystal. She had transformed from Giselle’s likeness into Odette’s, which made Nieve more afraid. As the Snow Queen now stood inside Siegfried’s pavilion, she saw that the curse had been broken.

            “Something is not right here,” she sneered. Then someone caught her eye.

            It was a dark-haired, bespectacled young girl in strange, outlandish clothes. She was the exact same girl who had been with “Giselle”!

            “You!” Nieve demanded. “Who are you?”

            “I’m Hailey!” the girl said, a little too enthusiastically. “I’m just…hangin’.”

            Nieve scoffed.

            “You don’t belong in this story,” she sneered before freezing the girl. She was then struck with an idea. If she took this girl, she could perhaps lure the imposter ballerina to her!

~

            “People don’t call ahead anymore,” Nieve said, revealing the imposter with Albrecht and Hilarion in tow. “They just show up, out of nowhere!” She eyed the two men. “And you’ve brought friends!”

            “Oh, look at you, with a house full, and here we are, barging in,” Albrecht laughed weakly. “Where are our manners? Another time, perhaps?”

            Nieve paid no attention. Instead, she focused her icy glare on the likeness of Princess Odette.

            “So _you’re_ the one who’s been _changing the stories_.” The queen’s icy voice filled the room like a blanket of a blizzard that blocked out the guiding moonlight on a cold winter’s night. “Not _following directions_ …well, dear, you’re just in time for the show!”

            She flicked her hand and revealed the young girl she had abducted.

            “Hailey!” the strange girl cried.

            “What do you think, ‘Giselle’? Or, might I say… _‘Odette’_?!”

            “Let her go!” the girl ordered. “I’m the one you want!”

            “Tut, tut,” Nieve scolded, “don’t be jealous. It’ll be your turn soon enough!”

            Her eyes glowed an icy blue as she told the girl how she had her friend trapped, and proceeded to force her to dance about a hundred quick pirouettes. At the end, the dark-haired girl groaned and fell to the ground. Nieve laughed evilly.

            “ _Now it’s your turn_.”


	6. Liberation

Nieve flinched. Her spell was not holding the girl!  
She watched in complete fear as the strange ballerina continued to dance her own steps, making the music grow louder.  
Then, in a sudden instant, she changed. Her tutu transformed in a burst of pink and golden light to the likeness of a rose. Her hair turned platinum blonde, and the ice in the palace was melting.  
The ice was melting.  
Kalmia’s magic was working. The shoes were working. Nieve screamed. No! The prophecy could not come true!  
Even as she shouted, she disappeared in a cloud of white mist and her voice was silenced.  
Albrecht and Hilarion pulled themselves up. They stared. The Snow Queen had vanished. Was she gone? Forever? Albrecht thought so, but Hilarion wasn’t sure.  
Down in the dungeons, the ice bars melted away. Kalmia and the two girls with her walked free. They took a side corridor and stepped out into the sun.  
It was then that Odette noticed something.  
“My curse…” she half-whispered. “It’s broken!”  
She let out a yelp of joy and did a pirouette with her hands high in the air.  
Giselle turned her eyes towards a rose that had just bloomed. Kalmia smiled. That was when something else caught Giselle’s eye.  
“Kalmia!” she cried. “Look in a mirror or something!”  
Kalmia stared into the ice that was melting on the gold. Upon her head was a beautiful crown of red kalmia flowers.  
“You’re the Queen now,” Odette said. “The Flower Queen.”  
Kalmia opened her arms wide and faced the sun. The withering flowers on her gown bloomed. She then paused, turned, and strode into the palace.  
Giselle did not know it, but the curse on her had also been broken with Nieve’s defeat. She smiled and took Odette’s hand, and the two followed the new queen into a palace that was transforming into what it had been before Nieve’s reign. Out if its doors stepped about a thousand citizens of Katerenni once frozen, and snow and flower faeries held hands once more. Yet Kalmia couldn’t help but wonder where the Wilis had gone.  
In the slowly transforming throne room, Giselle spied Albrecht.  
“Loys!” she cried, throwing her arms wide to greet him.  
“Um…” Hilarion looked at Albrecht.  
“Giselle,” the prince began, “I…told you a lie. My name isn’t Loys. I’m Albrecht, Third Prince of Astrea.”  
He was a prince?  
Giselle laughed out loud. What a surprise! And a nice one, too!  
“Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked.  
“My parents had me engaged to someone else, a Princess Bathilde from Callindry. I never loved her, though. I love only you.”  
Giselle didn’t care.  
“I love you too, Albrecht,” she replied. “If only we could do something about your engagement.”  
~  
Kalmia’s shoes had worked their magic; the curse on Odette and her sisters was broken. Cygnus and Leda were overjoyed to have their daughters back, and Odette and Siegfried met for real and truly fell in love. Rothbart and his daughter had vanished, much like the Wilis, as no one had seen them since the ball. Thus Odette’s kingdom of Cygnia and Siegfried’s kingdom of Kaldin were aligned.  
In the nearby kingdom of Astrea, a new arrangement was being made.  
“I never loved him like you do,” sighed a green-eyed, black haired princess with pale skin to Giselle. She had met Bathilde before her kidnapping, and they had become good friends without knowing Bathilde was engaged to Giselle’s true love.  
Hilarion, like Albrecht, had never been the type to believe in love at first sight, but this meeting was proving him wrong. The princess of Callindry was perfect in his eyes, and luckily for him, he was perfect in her eyes as well.  
“Please, Your Majesties, we wish to break our engagement as we love others,” Bathilde said.  
Queen Erin considered the two pairs. She had been but a milkmaid, like Giselle, when the young King Harold of Astrea had fallen in love with her. And now that same scene was unfolding with her son before her very eyes.  
“Very well,” she said smiling. “We shall have two grand royal weddings. One for my son and one for the princess of Callindry.”  
~  
Giselle’s mother, upon hearing that the Queen had agreed to the match with the prince, had a demeanor quite changed about her daughter’s choice of husband. Giselle was dancing in the village square, thinking it the most wonderful of days. Kalmia had informed her that she had been cured of a curse, and she thought that very good.  
She and the villagers danced, and at last she became Queen of the Harvest. They were calling her Princess Giselle already.  
“Oh, Albrecht,” she sighed, “isn’t it just like a fairy tale?”  
Albrecht didn’t answer.  
“Albrecht?”  
He wasn’t even there.


	7. Albrecht Stolen!

            “Albrecht?!” Giselle called frantically.

            He was nowhere to be found.

            Giselle began to weep. Why today, the most glorious of days, with her curse gone and a better ruler at last, did the love of her life have to disappear?

            Had he run off? She didn’t want to think he’d run off. It seemed so unlike him. She knew he couldn’t run back to Bathilde, not when she had broken off the arranged marriage for Hilarion.

            Suddenly, Giselle heard a sound. It was an odd sound, like a tiny piece of ice breaking.

            She looked down and noticed one of her tears fall onto what looked like an icy footprint! As soon as it touched the ice, it turned to ice and shattered.

            She gasped. The ice footprints were everywhere, and they seemed to belong to women. Among them were what looked like marks of men’s shoes that had been dragged through the grass and dirt.

            Albrecht!

            He must have been kidnapped by the ice women. Why would they take him? Was Nieve perhaps not quite defeated yet?

            Giselle had to find out. She ran, following the icy trails.

~

            Myrtha chuckled. The prince looked so foolish here, bound to an icy throne by chains of snowflakes.

            Eira laughed too.

            “But honestly, why is he even here, Myrtha?” Eira asked.

            “You do know that Giselle had a hand in defeating Nieve?!” Myrtha suddenly snarled.

            Eira fell silent at once.

            “He’s _punishment_ , Eira. Giselle took from us what we adored most of all, so now, we’ve taken from her what _she_ loves most!”

            They both laughed.

            “Serves her right,” Eira said, smiling in a rather mean way.

            “Unnh…”

            Albrecht was stirring.

            “G…Giselle? Where…am I…?”

            Eira and Myrtha erupted into hearty laughter as the prince’s eyes opened.

            “What the…who are you?!” he suddenly shouted. “Where’s Giselle?!”

            “Probably crying her pretty little eyes out,” Eira snarled. “Nothing more than she deserves.”

            “What – how dare you talk about her that way!” Albrecht snapped.

            “She took Queen Nieve from us,” Myrtha said coldly. “Our gracious queen was the one who liberated us.”

            Albrecht stared.

            “What do you mean?”

            “Troops, come to me!” Myrtha declared.

            Soon, many more snow faeries appeared from the doorway into the icy room.

            “This is our fort,” Myrtha explained. “We were fools once. Fools who wore our hearts on our sleeves and got them broken. But dear Queen Nieve saved us. She punished the men who scorned us by freezing them into solid ice!”

            Realization dawned in Albrecht’s head. Oh no. These were no ordinary snow faeries. They were the Wilis, the highest court of Nieve’s and fiercely loyal to her.

            “So she liberated you by freezing your hearts?” Albrecht replied. “I suppose that’s why you’re so…cold.” He laughed.

            “Do you _want_ to get frozen?!” Myrtha said, glaring. In her icy blue hand she held an orb of magic.

            “You can do that?”

            “Not as easily as our great and benevolent queen, nor as permanently, which is a shame, but yes, we can do it. And we will do it if you continue to mock us.”

            Albrecht shied his face away from Myrtha’s hand.

            “I…I did not intend to be rude. Please forgive me,” he said hastily.

            “You’re worthless!” Myrtha snapped. “You are only sixth in line for the throne!”

            “Third,” Albrecht corrected. “I don’t include my sisters.”

            “None of that matters,” Myrtha laughed. “Royal titles mean nothing when you are bound to stay with us… _forever_.”

            All the Wilis joined Myrtha in hearty laughter.

            Albrecht shivered. _Forever_. He never dreamed he would be stuck in an icy fort. It had been eerie enough facing the Snow Queen. Now, he was trapped by her army for what seemed to be an eternity, just waiting for him.

~

            At the gates to the Wilis’ fort, Giselle too shuddered. It wasn’t just the ice; the fort looked ominous. Mean-looking icicles lined the gates and fences. Just like Nieve’s castle, no light at all seemed to surround the place other than a cold icy blue glow.

            Albrecht was in here?

            She honestly didn’t know how she would get him out. It seemed to be the perfect prison.

            Giselle let out a fearful sigh as she approached the gates. Her icy breath touched them and froze. Her hand trembling, she pushed upon an icy bar. It was so cold that she was astounded her skin didn’t turn blue.

            The gates creaked and opened.

            She entered. The blue doors were already ajar. She stepped into a long hallway lined with blue icicles that seemed to glare at her and shout, “Leave! You are unwelcome here!” Nevertheless, Giselle pressed on. She had to find Albrecht!

            Her ballet flat creaked as it touched the first icy stair upward. Worried she would slip, she grabbed onto the cold railing. It was so bitterly cold that she thought she might freeze completely if she held on, but that didn’t stop her.

            The staircase soon branched off into two paths. Giselle looked from one to the other, unsure of which one to take.

            Suddenly, the hearty laughter of the Wilis reached her ears from the top of the left staircase. Quickly she ran in the direction of it.

            When she reached the top, she found herself behind a group of women wearing white tutus embroidered with icy blue snowflakes. Not wanting to get their attention, she crept to the side of them and saw what they were gazing upon before her eyes.

            “Albrecht!”

            “Giselle?!”

            “What are you doing here?!” Myrtha snapped at the girl. “You don’t belong here! Go back to your farm!”

            “Let him go!” Giselle ordered.

            The Wilis laughed yet again.

            “After what you did?! Never!” Eira replied coldly.

            “What I – what are you talking about? I haven’t done anything to you!”

            “You had a hand in the fall of our great and benevolent Queen Nieve!”

            “Your grea – oh!”

            They were the Wilis!

            “You’re…you’re real!” Giselle gasped. “The Wilis…I always believed you were just a legend –”

            “How dare –?!”

            “Eira, hush now,” Myrtha interrupted. “As she was saying, Giselle, you had a hand in the fall of our queen. You took from us what is most precious, and as punishment, we have taken likewise from you!”

            “But I – you can’t do that! I did nothing to Nieve other than be imprisoned by her!” Giselle shouted angrily.

            “We already have done it, dear,” Myrtha replied. “And to make sure you do not defy us, we will dance…forever, and ever and ever!”

            She raised a blue hand and the snowflakes binding Albrecht vanished.

            “What are –?” Albrecht began, but soon he found himself rising up out of the chair, surrounded by a blue glow.

            Giselle’s mouth opened in horror. She watched as Myrtha began moving her hands in strange patterns. Spooky music filled the air as Albrecht began to dance to it. He seemed to be following the faery’s hand motions. She wondered why he was doing this for only a split second – she soon saw that her beloved’s expression was one of absolute terror.

            “ _Stop it_! _Let him go_!” Giselle screamed.

            “Never!” Myrtha declared. “You shall never be forgiven for what you’ve done, Giselle!”

            “I _haven’t_ –”

            Giselle stopped. The Wilis were quite determined to keep him entrapped.

            She took a deep breath and raised her arms.

            Eira and several of the Wilis gasped. Giselle was taking Albrecht’s hand and beginning to dance with him.

            “Giselle…” the prince half whispered.

            “Dance with me,” the girl whispered back. “Never mind her.”

            “No…” Myrtha murmured. The prince was now following Giselle, and the snow faery’s control over him was weakening.

            “Dance!” she ordered her troops. “Now!”

            Eira and the rest shuddered and started to dance.

            “May I cut in?” Myrtha asked nastily as she directed Albrecht away from Giselle and toward her troops.

            “ _No_!” Giselle shouted and danced into the Wilis’ circle after her true love.

            “Albrecht!” she cried.

            “Giselle…” he answered weakly.

            She took his hand again.

            “Not so fast, pitiful farm girl!” Eira snapped as she took hold of the prince.

            Giselle didn’t even answer. She just took Albrecht back.

            “What are you doing?!” Myrtha screeched, struggling to keep control of him. “Get him away from her!”

            Giselle heard every word she said and wasn’t going to let Nieve’s ice-hearted army take him.

            Thinking quickly, she began dancing in a circle around him. Whenever a snow faery neared Albrecht, Giselle blocked her.

            “NO!” Myrtha screamed. “ _Stop her_ , _you fools_!”

            Giselle suddenly noticed the Wilis closing in on her and Albrecht. She moved her arms upward and spun around him in a series of very quick pirouettes.

            “I can’t!” Eira cried out. “She’s impossible to get by!”

            “ _Useless idiots_!” Myrtha screeched. “Out of the way, I’ll handle this myself!”

            She reached her hand out to take Albrecht’s, when suddenly Giselle appeared in front of her.

            “What –!”

            “He’s not going under your spell again!” Giselle snapped at her.

            “You think so?” the snow faery cackled. “I still have him under my control –”

            No sooner had she said this when she noticed that the blue glow around Albrecht was completely gone.

            “What? No!” she screamed.

            Out of the blue, the same blue light burst from Myrtha’s hands. She gasped. All the other Wilis staggered back. Their hands were glowing too. The glow spread quickly to surround their entire beings.

            “What’s happening to them?” Albrecht asked in wonder.

            Giselle’s eyes followed Eira, the one who seemed to hate her with a passion. She was yelling and rising into the air. All of them soon rose into a huge circle around the two. The blue light filled the room and turned yellow. In that instant all of them dropped back to the ground.

            A scream issued from the circle. It was Eira.

            Eira looked at her hands. They were no longer blue. They were pink! Her tutu had turned from icy blue to orange, and her icy blue curls were now blonde.

            She had become mortal again.

            All the other Wilis were coming back to themselves as well. Myrtha’s deep blue hair turned back to its natural shade of black, and in all of them, their blue skin returned to its natural color, and the ice in their eyes melted.

            The ice covering their hearts was melting too.

            Just as Albrecht’s love had nearly broken the curse on Giselle, her love for him saved not only the prince, but broke Nieve’s curse over the Wilis.

            For in truth, she had stolen their compassion as well as their mortality.

            Giselle observed the ice on the fort recede, revealing tan stone. Flowers were blooming in a garden that the window overlooked. The girls were weeping; the ice in their hearts had turned into tears.

            Giselle and Albrecht made their way out of the fort. As she neared the staircase, Giselle glanced back and noticed that all the girls were embracing one another.

            “They’ll be fine,” Albrecht said. “Look, they’re getting by with one another. Let’s leave this place.”

            With one final look at what had been Nieve’s icy army, Giselle left without another word.


	8. Happy Ending After All

            It was a beautiful spring day in the kingdom of Astrea. Flowers bloomed, and the people danced in the village square. All were joyous, for this was the day two of the villagers would marry. And it wasn’t just any wedding. Giselle and Hilarion were to marry a prince and a princess, respectively.

            Joyous ballet music played as Giselle and Bathilde danced their way up the aisle while the people threw rose petals. Albrecht smiled as he took his true love’s hand, and Bathilde laughed as she spun into Hilarion’s arms.

            Under an archway encircled by purple irises stood Queen Kalmia. She smiled as the two pairs bowed and curtsied before her.

            “Do you, Prince Albrecht Astrea, take Giselle Sabelin to be your wife?” the Queen asked kindly.

            “I do,” Albrecht said with a smile.

            “And you, Giselle Sabelin, take Prince Albrecht Astrea to be your husband?”

            “I do!” Giselle cried out joyously.

            The Flower Queen then turned to the second couple.

            “Do you, Hilarion Cadien, take Princess Bathilde Callindry to be your wife?”

            “I do,” Hilarion said, beaming at Bathilde.

            “And do you, Princess Bathilde Callindry, take Hilarion Cadien to be your husband?”

            “I do!” Bathilde returned Hilarion gaze with eyes full of laughter.

            The dance that followed featured the villagers and Albrecht’s and Bathilde’s families dancing in circle around the two newlywed couples. They danced until the stars came out.

            And it was spring in Katerenni. Lovely, lovely spring.

           


End file.
